


Falter

by moonwillow27458



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Arguing, Canon Compliant, Caring Castiel (Supernatural), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Guilty Sam Winchester, Hurt Sam Winchester, M/M, Mean Dean Winchester, Pre-Slash, Season/Series 08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 19:48:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17566862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonwillow27458/pseuds/moonwillow27458
Summary: Castiel noticed it the minute he came back from Purgatory. Something was wrong with Sam, and he think he knew what.





	Falter

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Wendibird on tumblr who prompted: _"Sastiel idea: Early Season 8, after Cas returns from Purgatory, sees how Dean is treating Sam and doesn't like it. Starts to chew him out about it and in the process realizes just how much Sam means to HIM. (And maybe Sam comes in at the very end and is floored that anyone cares about him that way, especially an angel.)"_
> 
> Dean is really horrible in this and Sam carries a lot of guilt. I have a lot of feelings about how Sam was treated in s8

Sam carried himself a little smaller than he used to.

He’d noticed it the second he’d found himself topside again. While Sam had never stood tall, he spent his days curled in on himself, as if felt guilty for taking up space. Cas had tried to ask him once or twice what had happened while he’d been in Purgatory. A few laughs here, a half smile there, but Sam wouldn’t tell him what was wrong. Cas had taken to watching him for any sign of trouble.

It didn’t take long to figure out what was wrong.

The brothers were barely speaking, not like they used to. Even when they’d argued before, they would still talk. There was nothing between them. Longing looks from Sam, glares from Dean, but not much more. It was unsettling to say the least.

Even more unsettling, were the words that were coming out of Dean’s mouth. Harsh words, angry whispered words, grim statements through gritted teeth. Sam took it all.

“This is your fault, Sam,” Dean bit out. Sam nodded, not even meeting his brother’s eyes. “If you’d have looked for us in Purgatory, _if you’d have looked for Crowley_ , we wouldn’t be in this mess.” His eyes were dark as he spat venom at Sam.

Castiel watched silently from the corner of the room, as Sam passed by him and down the corridor. There were tears in his eyes that his hair hid from Dean.

“Dean, can I talk to you?” Cas said. Dean hummed, barely looking up from his phone. A glance down the corridor to make sure Sam was out of earshot, before Cas continued. “It’s about your brother.” Dean rolled his eyes, and Cas felt himself shaking in anger.

“What about him?”

“Have you noticed… Sam’s been acting different lately-”

“You mean more backstabbing, sure.”

“No, Dean, I mean depressed,” Cas fumed. He had to hold back from raising his voice. Dean rolled his eyes, started scrolling on his phone again. The screen was lit up with some sort of shopping page, and Castiel had to snatch the phone out of his hand. “Dean, your brother is upset and it’s _your_ fault.”

“How is it my fault? He left us to rot, Cas!”

“And that gives you the right to make his life miserable?” Cas laughed, though there was no humour behind it. There was misery in his own tone as he thought of the tears in Sam’s eyes. The way that he could hear Sam’s heart break. “He’s trying so hard to make it up to you and you keep shutting him out. You’re acting like a bully, Dean.”

His speech was interrupted by a creak of a floor board. In the shadows of the room, Sam stood shrinking against the brick wall. Sad eyes refused to meet the light.

“Cas, you don’t have to… Dean’s right-”

“I want to, Sam, and Dean isn’t right,” Cas chided. “You didn’t ‘betray’ us, you didn’t ‘leave us to rot’. You grieved, and I would have asked nothing more of you.”

Dean clenched his jaw, his eyes were narrowed as he glared at his brother. Cas had little patience to deal with him any longer, and dragged Sam away from the library and down the hall. They fell into an empty room, away from Dean and his nonsense.

“You know Dean’s misdirecting his anger,” Cas explained. A bitter laugh came from Sam as he took a seat on the edge of the bare mattress. He shook his head, burying his head in his hands.

“I should have looked for you.”

“Sam, there was no way you could have found us. Did you even know Purgatory existed before Dean told you? Where would you even began looking?”

“I could have found Crowley or-or Kevin? _Someone?_ ” Sam was nearing tears, his chest heaving. Cas perched beside him on the bed, wrapping an arm around Sam’s sagging shoulders.

“Sam, you were alone, I doubt you could have done anything,” Cas hushed him, gingerly stroking up and down his back. “Like I said, I would never have asked you to. You deserved time to mourn.” Sam continued sobbing, but he leaned into Cas’ body. He seemed thankful for the comfort, for a bit of human contact. It broke what was left of Cas’ heart to see Sam so touch starved. There was nothing Cas wouldn’t do to see him happy again.

Cas pressed a kiss to Sam’s temple, held him tight.

“I’ve got you, Sam, I’ve got you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Please comment or kudos it if you did :)
> 
> I may be tempted to write more in this verse if any of you would be interested in it.
> 
> My tumblr blog is [here](https://benevolentsam.com) if y'all wanna hit me up


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